Avdo Međedović ( – 1955) was a guslar (gusle player and oral poet) from Montenegro. He was the most versatile and skillful performer of all those encountered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord during their research on the oral epic tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro in the 1930s. At Parry's request, Avdo sang songs he already knew and some songs he heard in front of Parry, convincing him that someone Homer-like could produce a poem so long. Avdo dictated, over five days, a version of the well-known theme The Wedding of Meho Smailagić that was 12,323 lines long, saying on the fifth day to Nikola (Parry's assistant on the journey) that he knew even longer songs. On another occasion, he sang over several days an epic of 13,331 lines. He said he had several others of similar length in his repertoire. In Parry's first tour, over 80,000 lines were transcribed. Many years afterward The Wedding was published in 1974 by Lord with a parallel English translation. Avdo Međedović died in 1955 in Yugoslavia. Albert Lord wrote after his death that "it may well be that he was the last of the truly great epic singers of the Balkan Slavic tradition". Early life Međedović was a Slavic speaking Muslim of Albanian origin, born in the village of Obrov, near Bijelo Polje (now in Montenegro) in 1875, while it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. His family had Serbian Orthodox ancestry, being related to the Rovčani tribe and coming from Nikšić, having been converted in the past centuries, though Avdo himself did not know when or why the family converted to Islam. He worked as a butcher in his teens, as his father and brother were butchers. After two years there he went to the army, where he served at various places and positions; he spent three years on Bulgarian border, then was sent to an officer school in Salonica; he recalled saying that he "rotted for a year and emerged a sergeant". After seven years he returned home, but soon was called to the army again and served a year and a half. During his second call to the army Međedović was wounded and spent 45 days in a hospital; one bullet was removed and another remained in his arm. Two years after, he got a small farm in Obrov and married; according to a custom, he did